Metagame: Shipyards for PCs.

Not much today, but it is something that being an infrastructure nerd I am interested in. In fact this merely part of what I am working out regarding how RUs can and are used in the Imperium.

So over on Citizens of the Imperium there is a discussion on what it would cost a group of Travellers to construct their own shipyard. I lurked it for a while, but today I had to throw in my two CrImps. So here are my ideas on the matter.

I would go with a minimum 1 RU per Class, thus a Class B Shipyard (Boats and Repairs) costs 1 RU and a Class A Shipyard (Starships and Repairs) costs 2 RUs. Note too these would be small private Yards limited to building only ACS sized boats and ships (up to 2400 tons to 5000 tons depending on rules edition). For a regular Class B or A Starport Shipyard I would go up to at least 5 RU per Class, thus a Class B is 5 RU and a Class A would be 10 RUs, but they would function as standard Shipyards. These Yards by the way don't include the cost of the Starport, just a Yard, ports cost even more to construct. Oh and figure a year per RU of building time, just to keep it simple.

Another idea I was thinking of is charging 1 RU per 1000 tons of boat or 2 RU per 1000 tons of starship the Yard is capable of building. Still keeping the year per RU build times.

I am thinking that these costs might also be just for a downside Yard and a upside or orbital Yard may double or even triple the costs. Also, some Worlds would raise the costs, mostly those with higher than T-Standard gravity or hostile atmospheres or both. Another thing to note is that these costs are at the moment not adjusted for TL either.

Now this of course means unless one of your players is a Noble or Merchant Prince the chances of them being able to afford such an outlay is not damned likely. Though, maybe they have good connections and a high rolling Patron who might mitigate some of the overhead as part of a payment for deeds done, which might make it a bit more probable. But then we get to the question of why does the Patron think this is a good idea? I mean a Patron may have a lot of pull and resources, but a Shipyard is a pretty big venture and I would need the players to convince their Patron to support their plan. Not saying they couldn't do it, just that it is a very serious long term venture and will tie up a lot of their adventuring time.

One last thing to note is that these costs are somewhat geared toward players being able to construct a Yard. Mostly such things are the purview of System or World governments. Now in my SATU game I do have a Noble who actually has quite a few RU, like 120 personally from having a World as his personal fief and holding. This doesn't count the RUs he has from other Worlds in his County. Of course a chunk of those go to his brother Walter, The Interhaus who is the current Duke of the House and of course the Imperium and the Emperor. Still he does have enough to build a Yard and even a Port if he so desires, but he is after all a Count in a small growing Imperium as opposed to the Third Imperium of the OTU so he has a lot more leeway regarding what he can and cannot do.

Comments?

Laterness,
Craig.